Devices which measure a physiological variable of a user and which then provide feedback to the user for the purpose of modifying the variable are well known in the art. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,076,281, and 5,800,337, to the present inventor, which are incorporated herein by reference, both describe methods and devices for modifying biorhythmic activity by measuring one or more variables of a user. The patents describe the generation of a stimulus which is provided to the user, so as to change the biorhythmic activity of the user in a way that is related to the monitored biorhythmic activity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,328, to the present inventor, which is also incorporated herein by reference, describes a stress-detecting device for monitoring respiration, and, in particular, a method for detecting and monitoring circumferential changes in the chest or abdomen of a user resulting from breathing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,574, to the present inventor, which is also incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for non-invasively monitoring properties of living tissue.
An abstract entitled, “Repeated blood pressure measurements may probe directly an arterial property,” American Journal of Hypertension (April, 2000); 13(4), part 2: 190A, by B. Gavish, which is incorporated herein by reference, proposes that the slope of a line relating multiple systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurements is a physiologically-meaningful parameter.
An article entitled, “Challenges facing 3-D audio display design for multimedia,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (1999); J 105:1357, by D. R. Begault, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes the production and psychophysiological implications of 3-D sound, which enables listeners to perceive the direction of a sound source in three dimensions. Another article, entitled, “Localization using nonindividualized head-related transfer functions,” by Wenzel et al., Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (July, 1993); 94(1), pp. 222-234, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes the synthesis of 3-D sound, so as to enable listeners to perceive the 3-D direction and localization of a virtual sound source. In addition, a cassette distributed by NASA/Ames Research Center, entitled, “Demonstration of 3-D auditory display,” allows a listener using a normal cassette player and standard earphones to experience the three-dimensional effect.
Other articles of interest include:
(a) an article by Cooke et al., entitled, “Controlled breathing protocols probe human autonomic cardiovascular rhythms,” American Journal of Physiology, (1998); 274:H709-H718,
(b) an article by Pitzalis et al., entitled, “Effect of respiratory rate on the relationship between RR interval and systolic blood pressure fluctuations: a frequency-dependent phenomenon,” Cardiovascular Research (1998); 38:332-339,
(c) an article by Bernardi et al., entitled, “Effect of breathing rate on oxygen saturation and exercise performance in chronic heart failure,” The Lancet (May 2, 1998); 351:1308-1311,
(d) an article by Mortara et al., entitled, “Abnormal awake respiratory patterns are common in chronic heart failure and may prevent evaluation of autonomic tone by measures of heart rate variability,” Circulation (Jul. 1, 1997); 96:246-252,
(e) an article by La Rovere et al., entitled, “Baroreflex sensitivity and heart-rate variability in prediction of total cardiac mortality after myocardial infarction,” The Lancet (Feb. 14, 1998); 351:478-484, and
(f) an article by Gimondo and Mirk, entitled, “A new method for evaluating small intestinal motility using duplex Doppler sonography,” AJR American Journal of Roentgenology (January, 1997); 168(1):187-192.
All of these articles are incorporated herein by reference.
Devices which are at least partially operated remotely are also known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,332, to Gessman, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a device for remote telephonic resuscitation. The device includes an electrocardiograph and a defibrillator which are carried by a user with a known history of cardiac symptoms, and which may be used to diagnose and treat acute cardiac symptoms. In order to facilitate the diagnosis and treatment, the device may be connected to a telephone line, so that a remote physician may make the diagnosis and perform the treatment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,626, to Schweizer, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a biofeedback chamber for applying audible, visual electrical or tactile stimuli to a subject according to a rhythmic pattern. The subject's reactions are measured, analyzed and used to control the stimuli.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,878, to Morgan, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a system including an external defibrillator, a defibrillator communicator, and a communication network. In order to perform a defibrillation, information is transmitted back and forth between a patient and a communication station.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,615, to Estes, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a system for treatment of congestive heart failure. The patent describes controlling the flow rate of a pressurized gas delivered to a patient during the two phases of the respiratory cycle independently. The system may be fully automated responsive to feedback provided by a flow sensor that determines the estimated patient flow rate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,571, to Brown, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for treating a medical condition in a patient comprising choosing a psychological strategy for treating the medical condition, and then encoding electronic instructions for an interactive video game. The game implements the psychological strategy, and loads the electronic instructions into a microprocessor-based unit equipped with a display for displaying the video game. The game contains scoring instructions to quantitatively analyze the medical condition of the patient, counseling instructions and self-care instructions. The video game can be used in conjunction with a physiological variable measuring device connected to the microprocessor-based unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,509, to Lachmann, et al. describes a system for artificially ventilating a patient. The ventilation system has a gas delivery unit for delivering controllable inspiration pulses to a patient, a monitoring unit for measuring at least one parameter related to the function of the circulatory system, such as a blood gas analyzer, and a control unit for determining an optimal peak inspiratory pressure and pressure amplitude for the inspiration pulse, based on the measured circulatory system parameter.
Descriptions of respiratory monitoring apparatus which assess capacitance are found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,850 to Dietz, U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,332 to Hardway et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,788 to Douglas, U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,185 to Diamond, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,367,292, 5,070,321, and 5,052,400, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,691 to Chen, et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a portable or implantable gastric pacemaker, which includes multiple electrodes that are positioned on an organ in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, so as to deliver electrical stimulation to pace the peristaltic movement of material through the GI tract.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,590,282 and 4,526,078, which are incorporated herein by reference, describe techniques for causing a computer to compose music.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,067 to Knispel et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for translating a subject's electroencephalogram into music, so as to induce and control various psychological and physiological states of the subject.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,538 to Yagi, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes an abdominal respiration training system. The state of the abdominal respiration of a person is measured by a sensor attached to the abdominal region, and the detected breath pattern is compared with an ideal breath pattern.